In recent years, the growing popularity of hunting and sport shooting, as well as growing concerns over personal safety, has generated an increase in the ownership of firearms, especially handguns. The possession of firearms does, however, create serious dangers. Increasing numbers of people are being injured or killed by their own guns by accident, as when cleaning the weapon, or by dropping the weapon, thereby causing the weapon to fire accidentally. Additionally, statistics show that gun owners often find their own weapons used against them by intruders who have entered the home and discovered the weapon and are then surprised by the owner, or who manage to disarm the owner.
Perhaps the most serious danger that results from having a loaded weapon in the house is to children. As the number of weapons in the homes keep increasing, more and more children are being killed by guns. Children have little concept of the danger of firearms, often viewing them as a toy. As a result, children are seriously maimed or killed every day because they gained access to a gun and accidentally discharged it while playing, injuring either themselves or others caught in the line of fire.
In efforts to make guns safe for everyone, a number of lock-out devices for rendering a firearm inoperable have been introduced in recent years. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,016,377, 5,020,259, 5,062,233, and 5,001,854 all disclose locking devices for firearms to prevent unauthorized or accidental discharge. A problem with most such devices is that they require a rod or cable to be extended through the barrel and chamber of the gun and then secured to disable the weapon, making the application and removal of the devices difficult. Additionally, such devices generally prevent loading of the firearm while secured. This renders the firearm substantially ineffective for use as a means of protection, as the lockout device must first be unsecured and then removed from the barrel, and the gun then loaded before it can be used. In an emergency situation, such a delay can render the gun useless.
Other safety devices have been proposed that enable the gun to be at least partially loaded and still be disabled. Examples of such devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,934,083, 4,569,144, and 4,412,397. None of these devices, however, provides a lock mechanism for preventing unauthorized use of the gun, and, while they are supposed to prevent operation of the firearm by a small child, they are typically ineffective for preventing use by older children or intruders who can easily manipulate the lock and remove the device. Further, none of these devices effectively guard against accidental discharge of the firearm when it is dropped and the hammer is struck.
The Bayn patent, No. 4,412,397, discloses a frangible strap designed to prevent movement of the hammer of a gun and thereby prevent the gun from being fired. This strap is, however, designed to be a breakaway device that is pulled free when sufficient force is applied. Such a strap conceivably could be fractured or separated if the hammer were struck with sufficient force, thereby allowing the gun to fire. Additionally, older children and adults can break the strap with relative ease and a small child could easily cut the strap with a pair of scissors, thereby effectively negating any safety effect of such a device.
Therefore, it can be seen that it would be desirable to provide a firearm safety device that disables and prevents discharge of the firearm and that can be locked securely in place, but that is easily and quickly installed and removed and which allows the firearm to remain fully loaded while secured.